Elk Lake Fishing near Ely, Minnesota

• Overview

  In Minnesota, Elk Lake falls inside Lake County. It stands 1,276 feet above sea level. It measures some 375 acres, and wind has room to build across it. You are looking at roughly 5.8 miles of shoreline, with plenty of water between access points. On our Lake County list it sits near the top for size. Some 25 miles away sits Ely, the nearest settlement. For a city, Thunder Bay is 115 miles off. Rules here are straightforward: one county, one set of rules.

• Where to Fish on Elk Lake

  Depth here is unknown, so count the lead down before committing. A natural lake fishes on cover, and cover here means weed and timber. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Records held for Lake County cover white sucker, yellow perch, northern pike, rainbow trout and walleye. County records show the wider picture rather than this one place. At Elk Lake the first feature you find is worth twenty minutes.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Between January at about 2°F and July at about 65°F, the water has a wide range to work through. A solid cap is the normal state through winter. Hard cover is dependable here; it goes around late April. Break-up near late April, freeze-up near mid November: that is the shape of an average year. Spring is short and heavy here; autumn is longer and steadier. Elk Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. No dam controls it, and the level follows the season. We find no slipway, car park or made path within a short radius, so treat access as rough. For the bass here, soft plastics worked slow along cover and a spinnerbait for searching do most of the work. Parking is often the real limit rather than the bank itself. Barbless rules turn up on managed water more often than not. Failing this one, try Cone Lake, 1.1 miles away. Check the position at Elk Lake before loading the car.